All Blacks

Teams

Joe Moody

A formidable scrummager and immensely strong, Joe Moody showed enough potential in his early seasons to have pundits and the All Blacks coaches predicting a big future in the black jersey -and he has been delivering on that.

A huge domestic season earned Moody a spot for the All Blacks 2013 Northern Tour. Unfortunately, an ankle injury in the ITM Cup Final prior to departure saw him miss the tour. Coming so close gave Moody extra motivation for his rehabilitation work and he got his chance again in 2014, when he was called into the Investec Rugby Championship squad as an injury replacement.

Although named in the All Blacks squad for 2015, he did not add further to his tally in the pre-RWC Tests. However, an injury to veteran Tony Woodcock saw him called onto the plane for the second-half of RWC 2015 and he took part in all three playoff matches.

He also made his Maori All Blacks debut in 2015 against Fiji and played against the New Zealand Barbarians at Eden Park.

Moody made his Super Rugby debut in 2013 and a year later showed the ability to perform at the highest level with five appearances for the All Blacks during the 2014 Investec Rugby Championship.

Other sports aside from rugby have also benefitted from Moody's strength and physicality: he has represented New Zealand in age-grade rugby league and wrestling, winning a bronze medal in the latter at the Junior Commonwealth Games.

Memories of a Bledisloe Cup loss to Australia in last year's dead rubber were a factor for the All Blacks as they prepare for Saturday's third outing in the series on neutral turf in Yokohama on Saturday.
More

All Blacks playmaker Beauden Barrett unleashed a critic killing performance including four tries and 30 points in their 40–12 win over Australia to retain the Bledisloe Cup at Eden Park on Saturday.
More

Denying the Lions their traditional lineout-driving platform and scrum power, the Crusaders achieved a successful 37-18 defence of their Investec Super Rugby title, and made it nine titles in total, in front of a packed AMI Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday.
More

Lions coach Swys de Bruin's claims of illegalities in the Crusaders scrum in the lead-up to Saturday's Investec Super Rugby final in Christchurch are like a return to the bad old days of verbal jousting and scrapping for an initial advantage.
More

Defence was vital in Investec Super Rugby semifinals rugby and while the Crusaders had been successful in that area in their last game with the Hurricanes, there was even greater need to be 'on the money' in defence on Saturday.
More